


The Ocean

by casesandcapitals



Series: The AU AU [4]
Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: F/M, M/M, Mermaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 06:52:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4469459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casesandcapitals/pseuds/casesandcapitals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're a mermaid."<br/>"Mer<i>man</i>, thank you very much," Frank grinned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ocean

"Okay, rings are on," Frank said.  
"Check," Gerard answered, looking at his own ring and then at Frank's.  
"Desk is... on, I guess."  
"Check," Gerard nodded, looking into the open desk at the glowing numbered buttons. The soft hum was even quieter during the day.  
"We've agreed on world number two," Frank continued.  
"Check."  
"Alright, I think we're good. You wanna do the honors this time?"  
Gerard shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He reached in and set a trembling finger on the button marked **2**. "Ready?"  
"Ready," Frank grinned.  
"Here goes nothing."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gerard opened his eyes and flailed, or tried to anyway. He mostly succeeded in spinning himself in circles and ending up halfway upside down.  
"What the- 'here goes nothing'?" came Frank's voice from nearby. Gerard tried to spin himself in that direction but couldn't figure out how. "Those are the shittiest countdown explorer words ever!"  
"Frank?" Gerard called.  
"I'm right here, you don't need to yell."  
Gerard craned his neck around until he spotted Frank a dozen or so feet behind him.  
"You're a mermaid."  
"Mer _man_ , thank you very much," Frank grinned.  
His legs were gone, replaced by a sharp-finned, powerful looking tail. His scales were dark brown, like his hair, but lighter under the fins and by his pale stomach. Gerard dropped his gaze to his own jet-black tail, decorated with dark grey stripes.  
He spun again, this time using his tail instead of trying to kick with his legs. The effect was a bit better, but not great.  
"This is so cool!" Frank laughed, already zipping around. The water he swam through was light blue and warm, wavering rays of sunlight falling down on them. They were close to the surface.  
Gerard kicked with his tail and pushed with his arms and a moment later he broke through, gasping, into frigid air. He spluttered and coughed and immediately dove back into the warm waters.  
"Anything up there?" Frank wondered, swimming closer.  
"Just sky, as far as I could tell," Gerard said. "It's fucking cold as fuck up there though."  
"It's like when you get out of the pool and the air seems cooler than it is!" Frank said.  
"I guess so... Hang on!" Gerard spun, trying to keep Frank in his sight. "We shouldn't be able to talk like this! We're underwater! Sound waves don't work like that; I can hear you perfectly!"  
"We're fucking mermen, Gee," Frank sighed. "Come on, we've got gills and tails and can breathe underwater. Maybe sound waves work different in this universe."  
Gerard reached up a hand to feel his neck and found that he did, indeed, have gills. It felt odd to touch them, like the area was extra-sensitive. The skin flaps were thin and fluttered every time he took a breath.  
"Weird," he pronounced, feeling the gills move with the word.  
"Gerard! Check it out!"  
Gerard looked up to see Frank doing backflips through the water, flipping his tail quick and precise, using the fin on his back as a rudder to keep him straight.  
"How are you so good at that?" Gerard asked, flipping his tail back and forth, just trying for a straight line. He wove drunkenly through the water, flapping his arms out to try and keep in line.  
"I just, I dunno, do it," Frank laughed. "You're a merman, Gee, you already know how to swim, so just _swim_."  
"What are you talking about? I can't fucking swim. I quit swim lessons when I was six after Jenny DeMarco made fun of me for being fat."  
"Duh, you're thinking with your other-world brain," Frank told him seriously. "You gotta think with this world's brain. I mean, you can use your gills just fine because you didn't over-think it. You're a _merman_ ," he repeated. "Just swim."  
Gerard slowed to a stop and rested for a second, considering what Frank had said. Maybe it was like how they both knew how to shoot a gun in the desert even though they had never fired one in their world before.  
He took a deep breath, the water filtering through his gills, and locked his eyes ahead of him where Frank was floating.  
 _As easy as walking_ he told himself. He pushed forward and swam straight at Frank, kicking back with his tail and bringing himself to a stop before they collided.  
"There you go!" Frank cheered.  
Gerard felt the blush on his cheeks where the water seemed to get cooler against his hot skin.  
"Thanks, Frankie."  
"Alright, what do you say we go explore?"  
Gerard looked around them but just saw water. "Do you think it's like the desert, like we landed pretty far away from anyone?"  
"Would make sense," Frank shrugged. "It would probably cause a panic if we just appeared in front of someone."  
"Which way should we go, do you think?"  
"I think we should go down," Frank said decisively.  
"Down?"  
"Big ocean mammals don't live near the surface, dude, they live way down."  
"Did you learn that in Biology or on T.V.?"  
"Pfft, Animal Planet, obviously." Frank swam off with a giggle.  
"Obviously," Gerard smiled, following after him with a powerful flick of his tail.

They swam for what felt like forever but was probably more like an hour. It was mostly boring, Gerard thought, swimming at a downward angle through unchanging blue water.  
"We spent hours driving in the desert before we found anyone," Gerard eventually called up to Frank. "What if we don't find anyone before our time runs out?"  
"I don't think it would drop us that far from anything," Frank said, his words floating back as they swam.  
"What? Why not?"  
"Because what would be the point? The desk exists for a reason, I'm guessing, and that must be for people to go to different worlds. What would be the point of going to a different world if you don't experience anything there?"  
"So now the desk is sentient?" Gerard huffed.  
"I didn't say that, I just think there has to be a reason."  
"Maybe the desk is just a glitch in-"  
"If you say The Matrix, I swear to God, Gee," Frank laughed.  
"I dunno," Gerard chuckled, kicking hard to catch up to Frank. "What if there's no real point to it? What if it just exists?"  
"I still think we're supposed to complete some sort of task in each world," Frank insisted.  
"It's not a video game, Frankie. Plus, we didn't exactly do anything important in the desert besides being hungry and mostly lost."  
"I didn't say the task had to be important, just something we had to do. Maybe something we did in the desert changed something there?"  
Gerard felt a chill pass through him that had nothing to do with the deeper water.  
"William wrote that he messed up that one world, remember? He did something to ruin it."  
Frank stopped swimming and Gerard spun back around to face him.  
"Well," Frank said slowly, his face scrunched up. "It's not like we're doing anything major, right? We're not exactly causing mayhem and destruction, right? I don't think we'll ruin anything. Maybe William just got cocky and fucked up."  
"Maybe," Gerard admitted. "We should still be careful though."  
Frank smiled at him. "We will."

It was another ten minutes before they started seeing ocean life in the form of tiny green fish darting about. Not long after that Frank spotted a dark shape looming in the distance. They headed toward it and soon it was revealed to be sharp rocks jutting up from the depths.  
"Should we check it out?" Frank wondered.  
"It's the first thing we've really seen, right? No point in going around just to keep swimming through empty water."  
Frank nodded. "Good point."  
They swam off together, slower than before, and approached the closest outcrop. The edges had been worn smooth from years of tide but large fissures ran sharp through some parts, like the ridge was fracturing. Seaweed grew from the rock in bunches, swaying lazily, and barnacles clung to large sections.  
"Creepy," Frank muttered.  
"Definitely creepy," Gerard agreed.  
"...Hello?" called a soft voice.  
The boys abruptly stopped, staring at each other then back at the ridge with wide eyes.  
"Please," came the voice again, scared and distinctly feminine. "Is someone-?"  
"Hello?" Frank called back.  
"Please help me!"  
Frank and Gerard rushed forward, swimming around the jutting rock and down, trying to find the source of the call.  
"Keep talking!" Gerard called, eyes scanning the shadows.  
"Here, I'm here," said the girl. "I'm hurt," she continued. "My mother told me not to come this far but do I ever listen? She'll be so mad-"  
"There!" Frank cried. They darted into one of the narrow cracks in the rock and came face to face with a mermaid... who was completely topless.  
"Um," Gerard blushed.  
"Um," Frank agreed.  
"Please, my hand is caught," the girl pleaded.  
"Right! Right, sorry," Frank said, his whole face a deep red as he swam toward her. "Gerard, come help me lift this rock."  
Gerard blinked a few times and darted forward into the small space. He had to press against the mermaid to get his hands on the rock and he couldn't help but blush.  
"Okay," Frank said, "you push up and I'll pull on the count of three, okay? One... two... three!"  
Gerard pushed, flipping his fin to get more leverage while Frank pulled at the rock from above them both. It took a few seconds for the rock to shift, but as soon as it did, the mermaid snatched her arm back.  
She swam out of the crevasse while Frank and Gerard carefully let go, backing out as well after a moment.  
Out of the shadows Gerard could see her long black hair fanned out around her pale shoulders. Her tail was blacker than Gerard's, with soft spots instead of stripes. Her eyes, when she looked up at the boys, were bright green.  
"Thank you," she said sincerely. "We should get back before something catches the scent."  
It was only then that Gerard realized she was holding her wrist crooked and she was bleeding.  
"Okay, yeah," Frank agreed, looking sick at the idea of sharks. "Let's go."  
"Oh, wait," she almost cried. "I can't go back without the flowers!"  
"The- what?"  
"There, the purple ones," she pointed with her good hand.  
Gerard darted over to where a clingy ivy type of seaweed was growing up the ridge, blooming with dark purple flowers that were similar to chrysanthemums. "How many?"  
"Only a few," she answered.  
Gerard carefully plucked four blossoms, holding them gently in his cupped hands as they all swam away from the dark ridge.

Alica (they had learned her name when her mom nearly screamed it as they approached) had offered them food in exchange for their help, so now Gerard and Frank were lounging on worn-smooth rocks and examining the hunks of raw fish and seaweed.  
"What do you think?" Frank whispered. His eyes darted over his shoulder to the stone hut that Alicia and her family lived in.  
"I think if we don't eat it, it'll be rude," Gerard answered just as quietly.  
Other merpeople were glancing at them curiously as they swam by, but Gerard and Frank avoided eye contact. They had approached the sprawling village in amazement; all those stone huts and seaweed gardens and pebble-lined paths nestled on the seafloor. They probably would have missed it if they didn't know where to look.  
"But dude, it's _fish_ ," Frank hissed.  
"I don't think you'll get away with being vegetarian in every universe," Gerard said realistically. He popped one of the light pink chunks of fish in his mouth and chewed. "And it's really good, anyway."  
"But, but," Frank grimaced, "we're fish- _people_. That's kinda fucked up, don't you think?"  
Gerard slowed his chewing. "Uh...."  
"Is the food alright?" asked Alicia, appearing in the doorway.  
Gerard swallowed and smiled. "It's great, thank you. How's your arm?"  
"All patched up," she said, showing her wrist that was bound tightly in long strips of pale-green seaweed.  
"And the flowers?" Gerard asked.  
Alicia smiled and drifted closer to sit with them. "My parents were mad, and there were lots of 'I told you so's, but my mother is mixing up the receipe right now."  
"Can I ask why you would risk yourself for a few flowers?" Frank wondered, casually setting his food down.  
"My friend is sick, and they're the only thing that might help," she answered softly.  
"Why wouldn't your friend's parents go for them?"  
"It's so dangerous out by the ridge, no one goes out there."  
"But you did," Gerard said.  
Alicia blushed and looked down at her tail, idly flipping it back and forth an inch or so.  
"She must be important to you."  
"He," Alicia blushed harder.  
"Oh," Frank smirked.  
"My father wants me to ask why you two were out by the ridge," Alicia said, changing the subject.  
"We were lost," Gerard answered, giving the same answer he had given the desert gas attendant.  
"Very lost," she muttered. "There are no other villages within even a day's swim of here. Where are you from?"  
"We're explorers," Frank said.  
"Why?"  
"Why not?" Frank countered, smiling.  
"And what have you explored so far? Anywhere interesting?"  
"We've only just started out," Gerard said.  
"Well, since you're here, I could show you around?" she offered.  
"That would be great," Frank said excitedly.  
"There are some beautiful coral reefs just on the other side of town, we could start there?"  
Both boys agreed and Alicia went back into her home to tell her parents.  
"It's weird how quickly you get used to topless women," Frank muttered. "Or, I guess, topless mermaids."  
"William drew them all with shells and starfish on," Gerard muttered back. "I wonder if it's like, a fashion thing or if he was just too proper to draw naked women?"  
"I can't imagine wearing shells and starfish would be that comfortable," Frank said.  
Alicia reappeared with a smile. "As long as we don't go past the ridge, they're okay with it. Come on, let's go!"  
Frank and Gerard followed after Alicia as she darted along the pebble-lined path through the village. A few merpeople called out in greeting to her, and she waved back but didn't slow.  
The huts grew less dense and suddenly they were outside the village, swimming along unadorned sand.  
"It's so quiet out here," Frank muttered.  
"We're a small village," Alicia nodded, looking over her shoulder at them briefly. "I've heard the larger gatherings are so bright and loud you can see and hear them far before you reach them. It must be so exciting to live somewhere like that, where they don't live in little huts but in towering cliffs and coral reefs."  
"We'll have to visit one of those gatherings next," Frank grinned.  
Alicia stopped suddenly and turned to face them. Her brow was furrowed in determination.  
"Would you take me with you?"  
Frank and Gerard were stunned silent.  
"I want to explore," she added. "Like you."  
"What about your sick friend? You'd leave him behind?" Gerard wondered.  
Alicia seemed to deflate. "Maybe, maybe once he's better, we could both come with you."  
Frank shook his head. "We're leaving tonight."  
"Do you have to?"  
Gerard felt awful for nodding, but how else could they get out of it?  
"Can't be an explorer if you stay in one place," he told her with a tiny smile.  
She looked down at her tail, swishing back and forth idly to keep her in place. "I suppose you're right."  
"Come on," Frank said gently. "Let's go check out these reefs."

The reefs were amazing and seemingly stretched forever. Endless colors and shapes, a vast array of fish and eels and octopi and so many other types of ocean life that Gerard couldn't even recognize half of them.  
"This is incredible," Frank grinned, swimming around and playing tag with a large purple fish.  
"Do you not have reefs where you're from?" Alicia asked.  
"Not like this," Frank beamed.  
They swam through giant archways and small canyons for hours, until hunger made them turn back toward the village.  
"You can eat with us before you leave," Alicia told them as they swam.  
They had barely gone out of sight of the reefs when they heard someone shouting.  
"Alicia! Alicia, where are you?"  
"Here!" Alicia cried back.  
They spotted an older merman racing toward them and hurried to meet him.  
"What?" Alicia begged. "What is it?"  
"Mikey's awake!" the man said.  
Alicia gasped. "The flowers, they worked?"  
The man just nodded frantically, a smile so wide on his face it looked painful.  
"Oh, oh!" Alicia cried, hands over her mouth. "Come on!" she said to Frank and Gerard. "Let's go see him!"  
She swam off with the merman, headed back toward the village. Gerard started to follow after but Frank grabbed his arm.  
"Gee."  
Gerard could feel it too, now. The ring on his hand was growing warm, emitting a soft glow.  
"Our time's up," Frank said.  
Gerard felt his stomach flip and closed his eyes tight.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They both fell when they hit the hardwood floor of the office.  
"Whoa," Frank said, putting a hand to his forehead. "That was so weird."  
"Uhg, my legs are all cramped up," Gerard groaned.  
"Too much exercise," teased Frank.  
Both boys carefully climbed back to their feet, stretching and making sure that everything was back to the way it was supposed to be.  
"Man, Alicia is gonna be so bummed when she realizes we didn't follow her," Gerard sighed.  
"I'm sure she'll be more than occupied with... oh."  
"Mikey," Gerard said wonderingly. "Her sick friend was _Mikey_."  
"Do you think it's the same...?"  
"It'd be a hell of a coincidence, right?" Gerard asked, biting his nails.  
"Do you think there's an Alicia in the desert?" Frank asked. "Or in our world?"  
"I dunno," Gerard sighed. "What are the odds of us running into my kid brother on two separate universes though?"  
"Slim," Frank shrugged.  
They stood in silence for a few moments until Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket.  
"It's still Saturday, the exact time we left."  
"How long do you think we were there?"  
Frank shrugged again. "I dunno, it didn't feel as long as the time we spent in the desert, but maybe that's because we weren't hot and hungry."  
"Are we still assuming around twelve hours?" Gerard asked.  
"Sounds about right."

They were both exhausted and decided to call an end to the adventures for the day. Frank shut the desk back up while Gerard arranged the books and paintings back where they found them. They shut the door to the office behind them and stopped on the way out of the house to grab their backpacks.  
"You know what I want to know," Gerard said as they crossed the front yard, heading for the path.  
"What?"  
"It's a little scary," he hesitated.  
"Go on, I'm an explorer, I can take it," Frank grinned.  
"If Mikey exists in all these universes... where were the versions of you and me?"  
The grin slipped off Frank's face.


End file.
